Piggies Halfway, Fall Garden

Our pigs are halfway to their send off date (mid/end November).  They are about 16 weeks old, when we send them off they will be around 25 weeks old.  At 16 weeks old, we estimate they weigh a little over 100lbs.  If you spread out that weight gain across their whole life, that's like putting on 6.25lbs a week (assuming they start at 0lbs from birth which they don't).
Here are some shots of them enjoying being lazy, nosey and doing what they do best.... digging-

The 2013 piggie clan-

Getting their vitamin D (note: Piggies can sunburn which is one of the reasons they like to cover themselves in mud.  No one thinks elephants are gross for doing it.)-

Digging and finding vitamins and minerals-

Also to create a cool place to lay; nice cool earth-

Piggie kisses-

Though they are very intelligent, piggies don't talk :)... human talk anyway.  Piggies are very vocal though, they grunt and squeal regularly even if nothing is wrong-

If we were keeping a female for breeding I would keep this girl.  She is a good lookin' gilt-

I have to admit I am getting somewhat attached to this one.  She is the smallest and gets picked on, she  also seemingly has a knee problems.  Must reframe from naming her and making her my pet-

Kids enjoy visiting them and throwing them food scraps.  The piggies have had LOTS of vegetable leftovers from the garden.  They seem to love all our root vegetables and their greens the most (second to our sweet corn of course)-

Tangent-  just a reminder how fast time flies.  Look at baby girl just a year ago.  It's crazy how fast they grow.  Even through the challenging days of parenthood I MUST remember to enjoy ALL OF IT.

A quick shot of the garden.... still growing food.  The vines to the left of the drying corn stalks are the sweet potatoes (5 heirloom plants, 1 Georgia Jet).  I assume we will be digging them in the next month once the vines start to die (or before a hard freeze if that happens first)-

We still have turnips, leaf lettuce and beets doing well.  The recent weather has been ideal for them (cool and occasional rains)-

I finally picked my heirloom Calypso Beans (dried beans for soups and such).  They finished drying on the plant, maybe will get one meal worth out of them.

Quinoa update for those interested.  I delayed growing it until next year after multiple attempts to get the seeds to germinate properly.  Quinoa is not hard nor tricky to grow (or so I have read) so I think doing the suggested spring planting will prove to be a better idea.  My guess is the late summer soil was warmer than the seeds prefer.  Only concern is the hot summer days in mid summer here when temperature are in the 90s.  Apparently hot, hot days can stunt the plant.  Its worth a try though.  I also hope to plant 'naked' oats in the garden next year (to make our own steel cut oats)..... and hoping we can add a few meat lambs to our pasture. Yes, I am always dreaming about growing our little operation here.... don't worry my husband is aware. :)